Richard,
I spent most of one summer, and one other visit living about 50 km southwest from the camp. So I have some idea of what the general area looks like and was curious about what kind of unit Walther might have been in. What I found was this from a unit history: “On May 2, 1945 ........., the 82nd American Airborne Division liberated ......... Wobbelin (which) had been created only 10 weeks earlier .......... to serve as a work camp ......... The camp had no infrastructure and no sanitation or food facilities. It consisted merely of barracks with open spaces and no doors.” It then goes on to describe over a thousand dead inmates and a mass burial. From another source: “The SS had established Wöbbelin to house concentration camp prisoners whom the SS had evacuated from other camps to prevent their liberation by the Allies. At its height, Wöbbelin held some 5,000 inmates, most of whom were suffering from starvation and disease. The camp was freed on May 2, 1945.” From still another source: "On 12 February 1945 a group of inmates were transported to build a larger camp, now called KZ Wöbbelin. The SS-physician Alfred Trzebinski stated during his trial, that 648 people were held at Wöbbelin camp until the end of March 1945. In mid-April several transports from subcamps of Neuengamme and Ravensbrück concentration camp with more than 4,000 inmates arrived. On May 2, 1945, the 8th Infantry Division and the 82nd Airborne Division encountered Wöbbelin. Living conditions in the camp when the U.S. 8th Infantry and the 82nd Airborne arrived were deplorable. There was little food or water and some prisoners had resorted to cannibalism. When the units arrived, they found about 1,000 inmates dead in the camp. In the aftermath, the U.S. Army ordered the townspeople in Ludwigslust to visit the camp and bury the dead.”
And generally speaking. It was not U.S. Army policy to leave weapons (especially guns) behind unguarded so that any potentially hostile forces in the area could easily arm themselves. Maybe you have some information I don’t that could help explain what I found. I'm sorry, but it doesn’t look or sound like it was a functioning SS Weapons Depot & factory from the historical record I've looked at so far.
Attached: John posted a link to a picture of the front gate. Here is the camp with GI’s in it walking around, and no doors visible in the photo.
Best Regards, FP
